Manuel Rionda

Manuel Rionda (1854–1943) was a Spanish-born, US-based sugar baron in Cuba.

Manuel Rionda y Polledo
Born	1854 Noreña, Spain
Died	1943 Alpine, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Businessman
Spouse	Harriet Clarke

Early life

Manuel Rionda was born in 1854 in Noreña, Spain.^[1][2] The Rionda family began investing in Cuban sugar in the 1860s.^[3] By 1870, when Rionda was sixteen, Rionda emigrated to Cuba.^[2]

Career

Rionda co-founded the Czarnikow-Rionda Company with Julius Caesar Czarnikow in 1909.^[4] By 1915, he co-founded the Cuba Cane Sugar Company with his family.^[2]

Rionda was the owner of sugar plantations in Cuba.^[1] Prior to the 1930s, Czarnikow-Rionda Company "sold 40 per cent of Cuba's sugar".^[2]

Personal life

Rionda married Harriet Clarke,^[1] and they resided at Rio Vista estate, a 300-acre estate in Alpine, New Jersey.^[1][5] They had no children, but they raised his orphaned nephew, Manuel Enrique Rionda, who later resided on the Glen Goin estate in Alpine with his wife, Ellen Goin.^[1]

Death and legacy

Rionda died in 1943.^[6] A tower designed by architect Charles Rollinson Lamb on his former estate still stands in Alpine, New Jersey, one of the most affluent zipcodes in the United States.^[7][8] 40.933872°N 73.933230°W / 40.933872; -73.933230

Further reading

• McAvoy, Muriel (2003). Sugar Baron: Manuel Rionda and the Fortunes of Pre-Castro Cuba. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida. ISBN 9780813026138. OCLC 50510804.
• McGillivray, Gillian (2009). Blazing Cane: Sugar Communities, Class, and State-Formation in Cuba. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press. ISBN 9780822345428.